Partner data support overview in Real-Time CDP

In this video, I’ll discuss how the continued deprecation of third-party cookies has impacted key digital use cases and how data partners and Adobe support full funnel marketing use cases in light of these industry changes using the real-time customer data platform. These are the topics I’ll cover. This is an overview video that provides a good background for a separate video that goes into more depth on the use cases, processes, and user interfaces in the real-time customer profile used for supporting partner data. I’ll begin with defining the term cookie as it pertains to the context of the digital ecosystem. Simply put, cookies are small text files that are written to your computer from web servers and contain small pieces of data that help identify your browsing behaviors on the internet. You’ll often hear cookies be referenced by first-party and third-party. First-party cookies are dropped to your computer by the domain you’re visiting. For example, if you’re visiting the Adobe.com website, you can inspect the cookie dropped on your computer by the domain Adobe.com if you know how to use developer tools and browsers like Chrome. This is also referred to as a trusted cookie, and browsers natively support this type of cookie because they’re used for web experience personalization on that domain, as well as tracking information like pages viewed and products purchased. Third-party cookies, on the other hand, are dropped by domains that are often associated with advertising networks. These cookies are frequently used to retarget users, regardless of the domain, and follows users across domains. For example, if you were shopping for shoes on a retail website and then later go to a news website using the same browser, you may see an advertisement for that retailer’s shoes on the news website if a specific third-party cookie was present in your browser. Many browsers like Safari and Firefox have already been blocking third-party cookies for years. Google Chrome has been planning to do the same, and it looks like Q1 of 2024 is the latest target date. Because of the deprecation of third-party cookies, many key digital advertising and customer enrichment use cases have been and will continue to be impacted. Brands will still need to find, reach, and retarget new prospects, personalize experiences to authenticated visitors, and enrich first-party data with expanded partner attributes. Fortunately, though, data partners have had several years to pivot their technology to fill these gaps. Let’s take a look at the partner data ecosystem first. Partner data is shared by or purchased from a trusted partner. This data is intended to supplement first-party data for prospecting and enrichment use cases. This data can come from enterprise lines of business or affiliated brands, brand-to-brand or brand-to-publisher sources, which are also known as second-party data, or data providers, which is also known as third-party data. First-party data is that which is collected directly by your organization and is the foundation for customer experience and relationship nurturing. Partners add value for a variety of tactics in the full funnel marketing paradigm. As you can see, partner data is used for prospecting, on-site personalization, off-site retargeting, audience enrichment, and reaching known customers. In another video, I’ll cover how some of these are supported in Adobe’s real-time customer data profile. For now, just get familiar with what can be done with partner data. Partners have found new ways to support enriching customer data and prospecting for the acquisition of new potential customers using either durable or synonymous identifiers that are not tied to third-party cookies. When working with data partners, it’s important to think through the key considerations listed here. What partner data do you need to supplement your first-party data use cases? Which identities will be needed by your downstream destinations? Are you comfortable delivering personalized experiences using probabilistically derived attributes versus deterministically confirmed attributes? Adobe’s real-time customer data profile is a single system which helps brands centralize marketing efforts across the marketing funnel. While it’s essential for organizations to continue to focus on their first-party data strategy, you can also supplement this with attributes coming from data partners of your choice. The real-time CDP reduces data silos and workflow efficiencies. The same building blocks used for first-party data and first-party profiles are also used for partner data, from data ingestion all the way to activation. The data partners you choose to work with is up to your organization. Select the partners based on your use cases and Adobe’s real-time CDP provides you with the open and extensible framework to use. Hopefully this overview provided you with the background on third-party cookie deprecation and how it pertains to data providers and full funnel marketing use cases, as well as how the real-time CDP can be used to support them. Thanks!